Favorite Pink Floyd albums?

[d3crypt]

Mine would be as follows
5) The Wall
4) Wish You Were Here
3) Piper At The Gates of Dawn
2) Dark Side of the Moon
1) Animals

[Leo]

5) Wish You Were Here
4) Animals
3) Final Cut
2) The Wall
1) The Division Bell

[MarxArchist]

I generally enjoyed watching the wall when I was younger. The film is somewhat like reading Foucault or a young, more idealist, Marx.

[Point Blank]

5) The Wall
4) Wish You Were Here
3) Animals
2) The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1) The Dark Side of the Moon

Too much agreement here to have an interesting discussion!

[Hit The North]

5. Echoes
4. Wish You Were Here
3. Animals
2. Dark Side of the Moon
1. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn




Too much agreement here to have an interesting discussion!

Leo's selection is pretty controversial given that it includes three of Floyd's worst albums in its top three!

[Jimmie Higgins]

Too much agreement here to have an interesting discussion!
Ok, none. I really don't understand the attraction to this band. They put me to sleep instantly. I know Floyd-hating is trendy, but I don't mind being part of a crowd on this one :D.

Anyway, I'm generally curious - is it that the music sort of takes you to a different place, is it some kind of musical virtuosity that they have? Why do people still listen to them. I had a dealer who made me listen to Floyd when I stopped by... another who'd show me his terrible paintings... I liked looking at his terrible paintings soooo much more. What am I missing?

[Nevsky]

5) The Dark Side of the Moon
4) Meddle
3) Wish You Were Here
2) The Wall
1) Animals

[Point Blank]

Leo's selection is pretty controversial given that it includes three of Floyd's worst albums in its top three!

At least it doesn't include A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
First person I meet who likes both The Division Bell and The Final Cut, though!

[Leo]

Leo's selection is pretty controversial given that it includes three of Floyd's worst albums in its top three! Leaving aside the other two for a moment, if you consider The Wall to be one of Pink Floyd's worst albums, you have no right to call anyone else controversial.


First person I meet who likes both The Division Bell and The Final Cut, though! What can I say? I feel no reason to feel a particular loyalty to either Gilmore or Waters. Essentially, the more their musical styles developed, the more they got separated. I find the later works influenced by both Gilmore and Waters to be musically more mature and complex and have no reason to dislike either.

I understand if old people are like this but I find it a bit ridiculous when young Pink Floyd fans have this weird conservatism about the early days of the band.

[Hit The North]

Leaving aside the other two for a moment, if you consider The Wall to be one of Pink Floyd's worst albums, you have no right to call anyone else controversial.



Purlease! Apart from Comfortably Numb - which might be their best ever standalone song - The Wall is a miserable dirge. The sound of rockstar millionaires flaunting their alienation. While there may be poorer albums in their back-catalogue, there're none more irritatingly smug and out of touch. Basically, The Wall is the sound of Roger Waters murdering Pink Floyd. Everything Waters did afterwards was the same but even worse.

[Lucretia]

They are all great for different reasons, with each reflecting a different moment in their career, so it's tough to rank them linearly. I am surprised I don't see anybody here mentioning Obscured by Clouds in their top 5. While certainly not the Floyd at their most visionary, some of the songs on that album have kick-ass melodies. And Atom Heart Mother has phenomenal instrumentation, along with Waters clearly developing a songwriting sensibility that was distinctly his own. Seriously, you could easily envision "If," with its talk of "spaces between friends," as part of the Wall.

[Lucretia]

Purlease! Apart from Comfortably Numb - which might be their best ever standalone song - The Wall is a miserable dirge. The sound of rockstar millionaires flaunting their alienation. While there may be poorer albums in their back-catalogue, there're none more irritatingly smug and out of touch. Basically, The Wall is the sound of Roger Waters murdering Pink Floyd. Everything Waters did afterwards was the same but even worse.

I've always taken the view that what made Pink Floyd special, after Syd's departure, was the combination of Gilmour's musical talent with Waters' sweeping lyrical artistic visions. Gilmour (and Mason and Wright) without Waters is just mindless musical wankery. Waters without the other three is out-of-balance artsy fartsy word painting shit. That said, while The Wall is decidedly NOT the same as Floyd's earlier material -- it is much darker lyrically and aggressive/claustrophobic musically -- it develops exactly the same themes that Floyd began considering shortly after Barrett's departure from the group: alienation, spaces, separation. Not just between people, but also between who you are and the person you want to become, which is of course related to relations you have with people. So I really don't see the album as you do, as some kind of radical departure from their earlier stuff.

[MarxArchist]

late 60's early 70's mainstream music is great in general compared to contemporary mainstream music. My "guilty pleasure" band is the doors.

[Hit The North]

I've always taken the view that what made Pink Floyd special, after Syd's departure, was the combination of Gilmour's musical talent with Waters' sweeping lyrical artistic visions. Gilmour (and Mason and Wright) without Waters is just mindless musical wankery. Waters without the other three is out-of-balance artsy fartsy word painting shit. That said, while The Wall is decidedly NOT the same as Floyd's earlier material -- it is much darker lyrically and aggressive/claustrophobic musically -- it develops exactly the same themes that Floyd began considering shortly after Barrett's departure from the group: alienation, spaces, separation. Not just between people, but also between who you are and the person you want to become, which is of course related to relations you have with people. So I really don't see the album as you do, as some kind of radical departure from their earlier stuff.

I think that's true but it's not necessarily a recommendation, as far as I'm concerned. My main gripe with The Wall, apart from Waters' miserablism, is that musically it is Pink Floyd grinding to a halt as innovators. Also, for me at the time of its release in 79, the sound of alienation was being done more interestingly by a new generation of bands like Wire, Joy Division, Magazine and Gang Of Four. Next to these, The Wall makes Pink Floyd sound old hat.


late 60's early 70's mainstream music is great in general compared to contemporary mainstream music. My "guilty pleasure" band is the doors.

Why would The Doors, one of the most innovative and influential bands of the 1960's, be a guilty pleasure?

[Leonid Brozhnev]

5) The Wall
4) The Division Bell
3) Dark Side of the Moon
2) Animals
1) Wish You Were Here

[Point Blank]

Leaving aside the other two for a moment, if you consider The Wall to be one of Pink Floyd's worst albums, you have no right to call anyone else controversial.

I don't think The Wall is among their worst, yeah. Sure, it's not their best either: the style is too uniform and too reminiscent of contemporary, bombastic, arena rock (it kinda makes sense in context, but they could've done better) and there's not enough strong standalone songs, but I'm not going to deny it's a very good album.
The story is good too: I feel Waters did better with the concepts of Dark Side or Animals, but then he didn't need to develop them as much since they weren't rock operas.

[Fred]

late 60's early 70's mainstream music is great in general compared to contemporary mainstream music. My "guilty pleasure" band is the doors.

Why the guilt? They were really great -- they still sound very modern today -- how many bands from the sixties can you say that about.

To the OP -- Wish you were here, Dark Side of the Moon Live (a recording of a live radio concert), Meddle. Honorable Mention: Obscured by Clouds.

[Geiseric]

Saw roger do the wall, so that one.

[d3crypt]

late 60's early 70's mainstream music is great in general compared to contemporary mainstream music. My "guilty pleasure" band is the doors.

Why is it a guilty pleasure? The Doors are one of greatest bands ever.

[Decolonize The Left]

5. Animals
4. Meddle
3. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
2. The Dark Side Of The Moon
1. Wish You Were Here

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

"The Wall" was the first PF album I ever owned, so I do have a lot of affection for it.

But like most here, I think "Dark Side of the Moon" is their best, with "Animals" being a close second. There's a reason this album is so well regarded in music circles: On top of just being a damn fine piece of prog rock, it pioneered some production techniques that would become the standard for recording.

[MarxArchist]

Why would The Doors, one of the most innovative and influential bands of the 1960's, be a guilty pleasure?
A lot of people bash The Doors, it's the "cool" thing to do which in turn makes it a "guilty" pleasure, meaning, I would be made to feel guilty by a certain amount of people if I told them I like The Doors. After all, if one is to fit in with the uber avant garde hipster record collecting culture one must reject The Doors, ride a fixie and only listen to obscure local punk or the Velvet Underground. A five page diatribe against the Doors in an old edition of Maximum Rock'n Roll comes to mind. It was literally five pages lambasting the band. It's all somewhat pretentious, a sort of dogmatic hierarchy based on peoples taste in art/music/film. Some of the criticisms are placed in Jim Morrison's persona. Some of the criticisms are solely focused on the music itself.

[Lucretia]

A lot of people bash The Doors, it's the "cool" thing to do which in turn makes it a "guilty" pleasure, meaning, I would be made to feel guilty by a certain amount of people if I told them I like The Doors. After all, if one is to fit in with the uber avant garde hipster record collecting culture one must reject The Doors, ride a fixie and only listen to obscure local punk or the Velvet Underground. A five page diatribe against the Doors in an old edition of Maximum Rock'n Roll comes to mind. It was literally five pages lambasting the band. It's all somewhat pretentious, a sort of dogmatic hierarchy based on peoples taste in art/music/film. Some of the criticisms are placed in Jim Morrison's persona. Some of the criticisms are solely focused on the music itself.

Really? Who bashes the Doors? Some jock in a fraternity?

[d3crypt]

A lot of people bash The Doors, it's the "cool" thing to do which in turn makes it a "guilty" pleasure, meaning, I would be made to feel guilty by a certain amount of people if I told them I like The Doors. After all, if one is to fit in with the uber avant garde hipster record collecting culture one must reject The Doors, ride a fixie and only listen to obscure local punk or the Velvet Underground. A five page diatribe against the Doors in an old edition of Maximum Rock'n Roll comes to mind. It was literally five pages lambasting the band. It's all somewhat pretentious, a sort of dogmatic hierarchy based on peoples taste in art/music/film. Some of the criticisms are placed in Jim Morrison's persona. Some of the criticisms are solely focused on the music itself.
WTF!!!! The Doors are amazing. I don't see how anyone could dislike them.

[Fourth Internationalist]

I like the song Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 but other than that I haven't listened to any other song nor do I plan to.

[jacman]

My 14 year old daughter has been on a Pink Floyd diet for the last couple of years. she loves, LOVES, Sid Barrett. she has tons of rare albums and boots.
that being said, i never was a real fan, but i think 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Wish You Were Here' are really good.
i thought The Flaming Lips' version of Dark Side of the Moon was brilliant, and my daughter thought it was horrid.

[Jimmie Higgins]

A lot of people bash The Doors, it's the "cool" thing to do which in turn makes it a "guilty" pleasure, meaning, I would be made to feel guilty by a certain amount of people if I told them I like The Doors. After all, if one is to fit in with the uber avant garde hipster record collecting culture one must reject The Doors, ride a fixie and only listen to obscure local punk or the Velvet Underground. A five page diatribe against the Doors in an old edition of Maximum Rock'n Roll comes to mind. It was literally five pages lambasting the band. It's all somewhat pretentious, a sort of dogmatic hierarchy based on peoples taste in art/music/film. Some of the criticisms are placed in Jim Morrison's persona. Some of the criticisms are solely focused on the music itself.

I think a lot of people are turned off by the pretensiousness. I find it sincere - anarchornistically so. Sincerity comes off as tacky by modern hip tastes. So a melodramatic but sincere band like the Doors is disliked by some of the same people who'd ironically enjoy who are less sincerely melodramatic. The Doors wanted to be pop-beatniks and the idea of being a beatnic would seem hilariously out of touch for most modern hipsters. Both bands were sort of "goth hippie" but the VU's "fuck-it" attitude works better for an overall cynical mood. 10 years ago every hipster band sounded like Joy Division and Joy Division wanted to be the Doors, so I think it's some sort of "extra-textual" dislike going on.

[Hit The North]

I'm not sure that Joy Division wanted to be The Doors. If we examine the few songs they covered, they were most likely more interested in the Velvets.

Echo & The Bunnymen - now there's a band that wanted to be the Doors.

yUgRSmo50gE

[Ele'ill]

Just to contrast, I hate pink floyd and the doors.

[Astarte]

My favorite Pink Floyd Album by far is "A Saucerful of Secrets", surprised no one has mentioned this one yet.

[blake 3:17]

The Wall is garbage.

I like Floyd up to DSOTM. Umma Gumma is pretty great.

[blake 3:17]

Having just dissed the Wall I do like the use of it in the Skratch Bastid's Floyd meets Pfunk mix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrY5GLmO7E

and k-os's great song about Michael Jackson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryAeRXArVHY

Canadian hiphop redeems The Wall?

[Lucretia]

My favorite Pink Floyd Album by far is "A Saucerful of Secrets", surprised no one has mentioned this one yet.

It is a fascinating album just in terms of seeing the band kind of groping about in a variety of directions, all of them potentially fruitful. It is really their transitional album when they realized that psychedelia wasn't, couldn't, be their thing, but had yet to find something new to replace it. This continued with AHM, though a lot more of the psychedelia had warn off by that point.

Still, in my view, it is not one of their stronger albums. There isn't a truly remarkable song on it in any sense, though I do like Corporal Clegg and Paintbox. Top 5? Nah.

My top 5, if I were forced to rank them, would be:

1) Wish You Were Here
2) Dark Side of the Moon
3) The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
4) The Wall
5) Meddle

[bcbm]

when i used to smoke 'dark side of the moon' would be one of my goto records. good for a lazy morning high where you just want to lay in bed and zone out a bit. haven't listened to much beyond that, or really listened to much floyd since i stopped smoking

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

5. Embryo
4. Wish You Were Here
3. Dark Side of the Moon
2. Animals
1. Meddle

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Despite the fact that The Divison Bell is, on the whole, rather average at best....I do rather like "High Hopes".

Hmm.....wonder if I should do a favorite Iron Maiden albums thread......

[skitty]

My favorite Pink Floyd Album by far is "A Saucerful of Secrets", surprised no one has mentioned this one yet.
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun is one of my favorites. I've got A Nice Pair, which is SoS and Piper combined.

[d3crypt]

Despite the fact that The Divison Bell is, on the whole, rather average at best....I do rather like "High Hopes".

Hmm.....wonder if I should do a favorite Iron Maiden albums thread......

Iron Maiden is one of my favorite bands too :)

[savage anomaly]

I used to be obsessed with Pink Floyd back in high school and I thought they were the greatest band ever. I listened to them like every day for such a long time, but after a while I started listening to a lot of different music and for the past few years I've hardly listened to them (I just finished my second year of college). I always thought about which album was my favorite but couldnt ever pick one that would stay my favorite for long... But now in retrospect I feel like the ones I still like the most are Animals and DSOTM- I like to think of Animals as a "punk" album and DSOTM is just a classic

[Lenin1986]

5. Dark Side of the Moon
4. Echoes
3. Animals
2. The Wall
1. Wish you were here :) All time favorite album ever :tt1:

[Invader Zim]

5) Wish You Were Here
4) Animals
3) Final Cut
2) The Wall
1) The Division Bell

Is that a joke? If so it is in dreadful taste. You should be ashamed.

[Invader Zim]

I think a lot of people are turned off by the pretensiousness. I find it sincere - anarchornistically so. Sincerity comes off as tacky by modern hip tastes. So a melodramatic but sincere band like the Doors is disliked by some of the same people who'd ironically enjoy who are less sincerely melodramatic. The Doors wanted to be pop-beatniks and the idea of being a beatnic would seem hilariously out of touch for most modern hipsters. Both bands were sort of "goth hippie" but the VU's "fuck-it" attitude works better for an overall cynical mood. 10 years ago every hipster band sounded like Joy Division and Joy Division wanted to be the Doors, so I think it's some sort of "extra-textual" dislike going on.

No. Just no.

Joy Division wanted to be the fucking Sex Pistols. And they were, the difference being they could write songs and had musical talent and were so much more than Punk as an entire genre ever was or could be. Rather like Wire and Magazine in that respect. Ian Curtis was a massive Bowie fan, and allegedly, after seeing the Sex Pistols went home and torn down all his Bowie memorabilia.

Steve Coogan explains:

1vvGp_VPeLI

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

To be honest, although I love Pink Floyd I've always thought that King Crimson were better.

[Eniac]

I am a huge fan of floyds, I have been through whole discography, and I like all of their work, except maybe the final cut, it's weird, that being said I couldn't ever, objectively, grade Floyd's,

by the way I'm going to see Roger Waters tomorrow, yaaaay

[Djoko]

Ummagumma and The Meddle

[Le Communiste]

5, 6, 7)Obscured by Clouds/Wish You Were Here/A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, cannot decide
4)The Wall
3)Atom Heart Mother
2)Meddle
1)The Final Cut

Top Fives are way too simple

[Leo]

Is that a joke? If so it is in dreadful taste. You should be ashamed. At least I'm not a wanker with a superiority complex trying to shame people because of their taste in music.

Yes, I love the Division Bell, I think it is, musically, the best album Pink Floyd ever made and anyone who doesn't like it can suck it.

[Le Communiste]

At least I'm not a wanker trying to shame people because of their taste in music.

Stalin eat Babies





On an unrelated note, why has not a single (besides mine) of Atom Heart Mother?

[Leo]

Stalin eat Babies

If you think liking an album of a band is as judgable as supporting a political figure, then you've got a lot to learn about politics.

[Il Medico]

When I was in middle school I listened to Pink Floyd a lot and for a bit claimed them as my favorite band. This was back in the age of the CD, so I didn't have a lot of their albums (just The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon). As I got older I kinda grew out of liking them though and I actually avoid them if I can. Especially Comfortably Numb, I've heard that song so much lately (they play it like 16 times a night on the oldies station where I live) that I honestly will be happy to never hear it again.